Musings

I've recently become much more involved in my knitting again. I (finally!) finished the cotton tank top that I'd been knitting. The knitting part was actually all done, I just needed to sew on some velcro and some ribbon straps. But now it's finally done. Michelle told me it looked pretty when I tried it on for her, but I don't really know.

Currently I'm knitting a baby blanket for the graduate student I work for. She's not due until November, so I have time, but I wanted to get it done. It's nothing complicated, which means that it's boring to knit, but it should make a lovely baby blanket. I hope she likes it - otherwise I'll feel really stupid. It's a really elegant dark blue with hints of white. I think it'd be a nice blanket regardless what gender the child is. I'm about 3/4 of the way done with it. Which is just as well because I'm getting really tired of knitting it. It's a very simple repetitive pattern, so it's not super exciting to work on. But it is nice now that it actually looks like a blanket.

After the blanket is done, there's more knitted baby stuff. There's a pattern in Stitch N Bitch for these really adorable little baby devil pants that I'm going to make. They're super cute. I've been wanting to make them since I saw the pattern, but I've never really had a reason to. Thanks to my grad student, I now have a reason. I've got the yarn and everything - so hurry up and finish blanket!!

I realize that yet again I have gone for a month without typing anything in this journal. I just can't ever really convince myself that it's worthwhile.

This summer I'm working in the Psychology lab that I've worked in all year and then for supplemental cash I'm working in a local ice cream parlor. That's definitely more fun. I like my co-workers, plus part of my job description is to taste all the ice cream so I can help customers choose. Fun stuff, let me tell you. The other nice thing is that it's totally local which is really fun since I don't usually like to support huge chains when I could support local. Not to mention, the ice cream is FANTASTIC. We make a chocolate ice cream called Zanzibar Chocolate that is so chocolate-y it's almost black. It's killer. We also have an awesome coconut ice cream with almonds and chocolate chips. And a nectarine Italian ice that is heavenly. Overall, lots of fun.

Neither of these jobs take up all my time so I do get to enjoy summer. Going out to the terrace with friends to have a beer is lots of fun. Plus I get to go see Clyde every Monday night. Dancing and drinking gin and tonics equals a wonderfully relaxing Monday night.

Last night Michelle came over and I showed her how to cook tofu in a stir fry. It was mad tasty. She liked it so much that she took home the leftovers, which made me happy. I totally just winged the recipe and so I'm really glad it turned out well.

Tonight I have a romantic date with my boy. We try and do something special and nice every so often just so that we don't take each other for granted. We're going out for sushi, which I haven't had in a really long time and is going to make me soooooo happy.

I've also been really productive today: mailed my mom's birthday present, made an appointment to get my haircut, and did all the dishes (which I had hoped my roommates might do, but silly boys seem allergic to dishes).

Also, I pledge to try harder to update more often.

This made my night: Clyde Stubblefield recognized me and came over and said Hello and shook my hand. Then, when I left, he called out good-bye as he waved.

So I leave for Cozumel in a few hours.  First got to take a bus to O'Hare, then catch a direct flight down there, but by this evening I'll be caressed by an ocean breeze.  Hopefully a pleasantly warm ocean breeze.  That is when the relaxation will start.  Until then, I'm stressing.  I worry a lot about travel plans.  I'm worried we won't make the bus.  I'm worried the bus will be late and we won't make the plane.  I mean, I am trying to enjoy the fact that I'm about to spend a week with my boy on the beach.  It's going to be a blast.  My best friend keeps reminding me how much fun this is going to be and that I'm just being a stress monkey about the travel.  But she's heard all my travel plans and she's like "they're awesome and you've budgeted in some extra time."  I'm all set - so now I just kind of want to go, cause sitting in my room is only making me panic that I'm forgetting something.

So I watched this new game show called "Are You Smarter Than A Fifth Grader?"  This is INANE!!!  I feel stupider for having watched it.  For example, a man didn't know that Alaska is farther west than California.

I seriously hope we don't globally broadcast this, because if so, the rest of the world must just be laughing at us!  This is such a sorry excuse for a game show.  No time limit and grade school questions.  People get so excited to find out that they were right for saying the ocean at the North Pole is the Arctic Ocean.  I can't believe that a) this exists, and b) that people actually sign up to be on this show.

On a really sorry note, after losing, just before he had to walk off, this guy proposed to his girlfriend on the show.  And she accepted.

American TV has hit a new low.  I can't believe that I actually supported this show by watching it.

So I've had fun spacing out/meditating to this game Boomshine. Very fun to just space out to. It's not like there's really much skill involved.

So far, my best score is 252.

So my brother visited this weekend.  After some initial last minute figure out where he was going to sleep while he was here, everything went nice and smooth.  He left on Sunday.  Unfortunately I had to work on Sunday so our goodbyes were rushed over a brunch.

Recently, been very apathetic.  I have some stuff that I just don't want to deal with or even think about.  However, apathy has not prevented me from getting work done.  I am ahead on posting my assignments for my online class and just now I finished my Physics homework which isn't due until Sunday.  Now, it might seem like it's a bit odd for me to finish it so early, so I'll explain a few things.  First of all, I had only planned to do half of it - but I just got on a role, so I decided that I would do problems until I got stuck on one and then I'd call it a night.  This has resulted in me finishing the homework.  I had also wanted to start it early because we have a test on Friday.  I didn't want to wait to start the homework until after the test because my discussion sections are on Thursday, so if I had problems with the homework I wanted to be able to ask my TA.  Whatever - I'm just a dork and finished my homework early.  This is fine with me because it means I don't have to think about doing it later in the week or this weekend.

I have a doctor's appointment (of sorts) this Friday that I don't want to go to.

I'm avoiding talking to my advisor because I don't think he'll understand or support my plans for graduation (namely, not graduating until December).

I've been having hip problems (my right hip starts to throb if I sit too long and then is often stiff and painful when walking) but have avoided completely scheduling an appointment to get it checked out.

Actually my cold is pretty much gone.  My energy is back.  The sore throat is gone.  Just a little stuffy still, but nothing awful.

So, why am I cursing my cold if it's gone??

Well, because the past several days have been gorgeous!   Upper 50s and mostly sunny.  Where was I with all this nice weather?  Sleeping inside with a stupid cold.  Now that my cold is all gone, what's the weather like?  Back down to the low 30s with mostly overcast.  The stupid cold made me miss the nice weather!!!

My consolation prize is that I looked at the current weather in Cozumel today.   83 degrees but feels like 90.  I'm counting down the days!!

So I know, I know - I've gotten lazy about posting again.  It happens.  It's a cyclical thing.  I don't really feel anyone reads this, so I don't post, so no one reads this, so I don't post...... You get the picture.

I guess my big news is spring break.  Me and the boy are going to Cozumel, Mexico for a week, just the two of us.  Spring break is actually our 5 year anniversary and it is also my last spring break given that I graduate in December.  So we thought we should do something really fun.  So we've got an all inclusive hotel on the beach in Cozumel.  While I usually don't like to do all inclusive stuff, usually I'm traveling.  I argue that what I'm doing isn't travel, it's just a vacation.  All I want to do is bum around on a beach and eat food.  The all inclusive includes free sunfish sailing, snorkling, and wind surfing, so we should be busy too - not pure beach bums.  Though I am looking forward to catching up on some fun reading.

The other news is I have an amazing awful cold.  And right when the weather turned nice, too.  I've had it for a week now, and the sore throat and stuffy nose are killing me.  The sore throat has actually been getting worse and I've been debating going into the clinic and having someone check it out.  But I'm lazy, and I'm conviced it's just a cold in which case all I can do is fliuds and rest, which is what I'm doing anyway. 

And on that note - I'm tired (again - stupid cold) and am going to go take a nap.

It's official.  On Monday I signed a lease with my boy.  We're moving in together on August 16th.  We going to be living in a flat on the second floor of a house.  There's another 2 bedroom beneath us with whom we share a driveway, porch (with swing!) and yard.  We got a 2 bedroom so we' d have enough space for both of us.   We're going to turn on bedroom into a study/guest-bedroom and then one will be the "master bedroom."  The whole place has hardwood floors, but the "master bedroom" is also totally wood panelled.  Combine that with the amount of sunlight that comes in it, and it's a very warm and cosy room.  Also - it's possible that I could get a kitty, which could be trouble.  Open up the possibility of having a kitty and it seems likely I'll end up getting one.  We'll see.  I'm trying to be reasonable and not just be like "KITTY!"  Overall I'm excited.  The place seems nice enough that we'll just renew our lease and live there for a while, until the boy finishes school.  Hopefully it works out.  But regardless - it's official, I'm moving in with the boy.

So I got the yarn to finish my coat.  I've spent the past hour or so assembling it, weaving in all the loose ends - and now I think I don't actually like it!  That is very dissapointing.  I mean, I've worked on this (off and on) for almost a year; it's been many days of work, and now I'm not really happy with the end product.  I feel like the sleeves are too baggy, and they might be a hair too long.  The whole thing feels really heavy and I think it hangs funny.  I can't actually tell if it looks bad or if I'm just being negative and overly critical.  I need to get some buttons still to sew onto the coat and then also onto the cuffs, which will help the sleeves look nicer.  So maybe those finishing touches will help, but I don't know.  Feeling very nervous.  It'd really suck to work this hard on something and then have it turn out badly.  Bah!!!!

Or maybe I just need some sleep.  Hopefully it'll look better in the morning.

So I'm doing this whole apartment search thing.  While I am excited having more control over my place next year, given how indecicive I am, this is proving to be difficult.  I finally contacted 6 places, and I've actually already heard back from 2 and made appointments to go view the place.  For the most part any of the 6 places I contacted seems nice.  Out of the giant list of places I found, I picked the few that I really liked and tried to set up appointments for those.  Only if they don't work out do I think I'd contact other places.  Now luckily, while I had to find the places and pick which ones to contact, my boy will be viewing them with me and helping me pick which one we want.  Yep, that's a we.  We're going to move in together this coming year once our current leases run out.  We're getting a 2 bedroom because, a) we think the extra space will be nice and b) they aren't that much more expensive than a 1 bedroom for a lot more room (see a).  The other nice thing is that we'll have an extra bedroom which will make it much easier for our friends to come visit us (hint hint). 

An added bonus? Some of the nicier places that we're looking at allow kitties!!! Kitty kitty kitty!  Obviously this makes me very happy.  It'd be so nice to have a little kitty waiting at home.  Luckily, my boy is just as excited.

Overall this is stressing me out a little.  Just one more step on my way to true adulthood.  I don't know why I'm this nervous.  It should be lots of fun actually getting to decorate my own appartment.

So most of you probably don't know, but I've been knitting a coat on and off for almost a year now.  And I've almost finished it.  I finished the second sleeve just moments ago.  What's left?  Just knitting the collar for the coat.  But, oh  no! What's this?  I'm out of green yarn for the collar.  Poopers.  Not the end of the world, but quite dissapointing.  Luckily I've ordered more yarn from the place I ordered the original yarn, but it won't be here for at least another 5 days.  So my beautiful all wool coat (grey with green trim) will have to wait a bit longer.

Once again, poopers.

So my favorite pair of blue jeans ripped last night.  I just bought them in October, so there's no real reason this should have happened.  They looked so good!   Now they have a (at least) 2 inch hole in the crotch.  What an odd place for them to rip.  I sat down at my desk and then moved to sit cross legged in my chair to keep my toes warm and *riiiiiiip* and there it was,  the hole.   It's sort of on the left upper inner thigh, but there appears to be smaller one on the same spot bu ton the right leg.  I mean, obviously they're still wearable, but not really public wearable.  I could put on tights underneath, but still a crotch hole is a bit awkward.  I have no problem wearing pants with holes at the knees or upper thigh.  But the whole crotch thing feels a bit different to me.  So this means I really need to get up off my butt and go buy at least one other pair of jeans.  I'm not actually sure if I own any jeans that don't have holes in them.  Most of my pants seem to get holes in the knees pretty quickly.  Bah! And I was treating those pants so carefully so they wouldn't get hole!  So much for that plan.

Oh my goodness! It is cold here.  And not in the "relative" wussy way.  I mean this is cold by almost anyone's standards except Mt. Everest and Antarctica.  It is currently -15 degrees but it feels like -25!!!  The high today is 1.  Obviously this definition of "high" is in the relative sense.  1 is "high" when compared to -15!  In fact, it is so cold that my orchestra rehearsal is cancelled tonight because the director does not wanting us damaging our instruments by dragging them through sub-zero temperatures.  And  lots of schools in Madison are closed today due to COLD.  We don't cancel schools here due to snow (unless it is a truely mammoth amount) but we can cancel schools due to the cold.  As NPR described it the temperature is "bitterly and dangerously cold."  How very accurate.  It looks deceptively nice out too.  The sun is shining.  The sky is blue.  But any exposed skin is quickly rendered to an icicle if you actually step outside.

If you're in the midwest, you know my pain.  All of you who aren't in the midwest, enjoy your weather knowing that it really could be worse.

Oy!  So here I go and call it an early night on Saturday so I can get enough sleep to go to work this morning at 9:30, and at 9:00am, after I've gotten up, dressed, made breakfast and tea, I get the call.  Our participant has cancelled.  Bah!  So now I'm pretty awake, but I don't actually have to be.  And given that during the week I have class at 8:50am Monday - Thursday, Sunday offers such a nice opportunity to sleep in.

Now, I'm definitely not mad at the participant.  She cancelled because she was feeling sick.  And she did call us to tell us she wasn't coming in.  Some participants have just not shown up, and finally when we call them they say "oh yeah... I'm not coming in. I don't really feel like it today."  So in the grand scheme of cancelations, this really isn't that bad.

I'm just sad that I'm awake now and missed out on some quality uninterrupted sleeping in.

So I saw this on my friends blog.  Watched it out of curiousity and now have downloaded the mp3.  Hilarious and inane.

You are a Pirate!

So while I was pretty excited for this Honors section of Language, Mind and Brain, I'm now a bit more hesitant.  The class has a lot of freshmen in it.  Not that freshmen aren't worthwhile people, but there is a big difference between a senior and freshman and I know that will affect the discussions we have.  It's just that non-freshman have a few more years of college under their belts and that really changes how one approaches discussions and the comments one can make.

Some of the freshmen were terrifyiing too.  They have a better idea of what they want to do with their degree than I do!  I'd be amazed if all their plans work out perfect.  But it is funny that one freshman basically wanted to do the majors I'm doing and then she rattled off exactly what she'd be doing post-school ending with "...teaching in a hospital."  Ask me what I'm doing and I'm like "uh.. not completely sure.  Probably taking a year or 2 off from school, work in a lab and then maybe go to grad school."  Much more vague.

On the plus side, the Honors section does look interesting.  All we do is lead and participate in discussions.  No tests.  No papers.  A class purely based on discussion!  (I'm not sure if this makes me a dork for liking this.)  I looked over the articles we're going to be reading and, at least from the titles, they sound really interesting.  Like sign language aphasia (aphasia is the loss of language [not speech, but language]).  For next week, for example, we have to read an article about a dog that apparently knows 100 different words.  Overall, looks like really interesting stuff.  I guess we'll see how the scales balance out in liking vs disliking the class.

So I've only had 2 days of classes so far, therefore not much has happened.  I started yesterday by going to Physics bright and early at 8:50 in the morning.  We're going to be doing mostly electricity and magnetism this semester.  Other than 2 demonstrations showing that opposite charges attract while same charges repel (something I hope we all knew long before the demos) all we did was go over the syllabus and general policies such as attendance and exams schedules and stuff.  Next I had Language, Mind and Brain, a psychology course taught by a former USC prof.  She seems really nice and the course looks good.  Once again, didn't really do much more than go over the syllabus, but she raised some interesting questions/ideas that she plans to address this semester, such as, would you think differently if you spoke a different language.  To end my Monday I went to All University Strings, which is the string ensemble I'm in.  Unfortunately my cello wasn't fixed yet, so I just sat through the rehearsal.  Luckily my stand-partner for the night was kind enough to let me play a bit on her cello.  That actually worked out well because she didn't read tenor clef and one of the pieces was in tenor clef so I just played that one.

TuesdayI had my Physics discussion, also bright and early at 8:50 am.  My TA doesn't seem quite as nice as my TA last semester, but he does seem pretty nice and laid back compared to some science TAs I've had.  It was a good start.  Unfortunately we only met for 12 minutes to, see if you can guess.... that's right! go over the syllabus and general policies for the class.  Exciting exciting I know.  Then this afternoon I had my Neuroscience Seminar.  This is a class where once a week we come and listen to a faculty speak about their research (obviously neuroscience related).  We then write one page responses/reactions/questions about the presentation to email to Peter Lipton.  He's the professor in charge of the course.  He's the professor I had last semester for my Cellular and Molecular Mechanism of Memory and he is fanstastic!  The speaker this week talked about his research in brain tumor stem cells, which was a bit complex, but interesting.

Today is just a repeat of Monday. Usually I'd have Physics lab from 7-10pm, but thankfully there are no labs this week.  I know that seems long, but if it's anything like last semester the labs rarely take the entire period to complete.  The other change is that I signed up to be in the Honors section for Language, Mind and Brain.  The course just seemed really interesting and there was space left.  I have like 2 weeks or so to change my mind, but given that this isn't a strenuous semester it seemed like it might be worth a try.  The actually class is about 200 people big lecture.  The Honors section is obviously much smaller.  In it we'd discuss articles relevant to class.  The smaller format really appeals to me.  Plus I also thought that this professor would be potentially interesting to work for next year and so this would be a good opportunity to meet her and to allow her to get to know me.

Do I have a life other than classes?  Thankfully yes, but it is only the first week so we'll see how long it lasts.  I did got a new phone and it's working fine.  Even managed to personalize it some with special rings for special people.  My cello is also fixed.  I picked it up this afternoon.  It sounds wonderful! Plus the guy who repaired it was really  nice.  He even knew about Potter's Violin in Bethesda (where I got my cello).  On Friday, I'm getting together with Nicole, a friend of mine who dates another friend of mine, to have a girl's night.  We're going to make tofu stir fry (she's a vegetarian - so luckily I like tofu) and watch a horrendous girly movie that I netflix-ed.

This past Sunday, me, Mattias and a bunch of our friends had a massive potluck and watched the playoff football games, the games that determine who is going to the Super Bowl.  There was soooooo much food.  I brought cornbread muffins.  In addition to that there was fried chicken, homemade enchiladas, rice and beans (the only thing that wasn't very good), baked potato skins, homemade salsa, and root beer floats.  It was a very impressive amount of tasty homemade food given that we're a bunch of college students.  Even though I'm not a huge football fan, I had fun hanging out with friends to watch the games.

So I was supposed to be trying to update this more regularly.  Obviously trying is a key word here.

Classes start tomorrow and for no apparent reason I'm terrified.  I've some how decided that this will be the semester from hell, despite all evidence that would say otherwise.  Since I've decided not to graduate until December, doing 4 full years of college, I don't have to cram in a ton of classes into this semester.  I could graduate this May if I really wanted to.  But by staying until December, I can take some classes that would be good to take if I was thinking of going to graduate school.  Since I don't want to rule out that possiblity, I'm going to take them.  If I was going to gradaute in May I could cram in one of the 2 classes that I'd want to take.  This way, though, no cramming is necessary.  Plus as an added bonus I'd get to take some fun completely non-sciency classes (like intro to drawing).  So this means that my next year of school should be chill.  I'm taking mostly upper level courses that should be interesting.  Upper level, for some, makes the class sound scary.  To me it makes the class sound like fun (I'm such a dork).  It means that the people in the classes actually want to be taking them (more or less) and so you don't have those idiot classmates who pay no attention and really ruin good discussions.  Basically, I should be looking forward to this semester more than I am.

After having bought all my textbooks, I've spent large amounts of time reading Special Topics in Calamity Physics.  Now you might wonder what interest I would have in Physics (if you talk to me during the semester you'd know how much I loathe it).  This book, however, has absolutely  nothing to do with Physics.  It is in fact a very witty, kind of dorky, murder mystery of sorts.  Not a whodunnit, but a murder mystery none the less.  I haven't gotten to the end, so I can't say if it concludes as nicely as it began, but I certainly hope so.  I'm really going to miss having lots of time to lounge around coffee shops reading.